Guilty by Association
by Simulacra242
Summary: Takes place shortly after the Namek Saga. Vegeta meets up with a few of Freiza's other warriors. They must decide what to do with their new found freedom. Also all persons known to have worked for Freiza are being arrested and executed for their crimes.
1. Silent Arrival

I do not own DBZ  
  
Takes place during the three years between sagas, please review! But be nice, this is my first fic.  
  
Guilty by Association  
  
Chapter 1 : Silent Arrival  
  
He was given a brief reprieve from the nightmares. It had been over a month. A month of sleep had done him good. The constant feeling of aggravation and nervousness which he had known all his life had finally begun to ebb. Slowly, ever so slowly, the saiyan began to let down his guard. It was over. Two decades of slavery, of walking on eggshells, of plotting revenge was coming to an end. Although, it was not so easy a transition as one might think. Vegeta still felt strange living on a planet he had once attempted to destroy, being able to pass as one of them. This was foreign to him, to not feel hatred emanating from their very souls towards his being. To walk the streets and be ignored by the ignorant humans who didn't seem to know or care who and what he was. He did this often, when his wounds and the woman prevented him from training. For hours he would wander unnoticed, he would sit and be passed by hundreds who never even turned their heads. This newfound anonymity was both comforting and chilling.  
  
He could leave this dust ball of a plant at any time and yet he stayed. Maybe it was the woman, maybe the child, he told himself it was his pride, his uncompleted task of destroying Kakkarotto. For years he had been scheming to overthrow Freiza and now it was done. He needed a goal, the more unattainable the better, anything to keep him fighting. It as so easy to hate Kakkarotto, Vegeta had only to transfer emotion from one being to another. Now he would never be as ease, his nightmares would haunt the night until he breathed his last. This he could accept but still the question of where to go from here nagged at his brain.  
Vegeta knew the others were coming even before he felt their ki signatures, he knew this from experience. All the long missions they had spent together prior to him being assigned to baby-sit Raditz and Nappa had taught him their characteristics and their actions thus became extremely predictable. He hesitated to call them friends, one did not have friends under Freiza, they were too much of a liability. They could turn on you at anytime, even the closest of brothers had been known to rat each other out. Freiza had interesting and innovative methods of manipulation. Worst of all, they could die; he learned early to cope with this. Every time someone left you must always assume you will never see them again.  
  
When he returned to Capsule Corp a fresh nightmare lay waiting. After waking in a cold sweat, he felt it. Four ki's slowly but surely heading towards Earth. Vegeta climbed out of bed and quickly dressed. They would be landing shortly.  
  
"Damn fools," he thought, "why are they coming here, can't they learn to think for themselves?"  
  
More than once Vegeta commanded himself back into bed, or at least to the gravity room, and yet he found himself flying towards the spot he knew they would land. Taking his time, he arrived an hour later, landing silently on a ridge above them. The four of them had made a fire, they were waiting for him. Was it possible that he had become as predictable to them as they were to him?  
  
A voice called out from behind.  
  
"What are you doing here?" It was the Namek  
  
Vegeta only smirked and crossed his arms, taking his usual stance.  
  
"I was just asking myself the same question," after another moment he began his decent towards the waiting group, quietly cursing himself for his weakness. Nothing but trouble could follow. 


	2. The Truth in Rumors

Chapter 2: The Truth in Rumors  
  
The stars shown down on the group silently, the only continuous sound being the snap and crackle of the flames. There were four of them. Two men, twins, in there mid twenties sat cross-legged, dutifully tending the fire. A young girl, no older than sixteen was deep in thought, mindlessly tossing stones. Only one figure was standing, a woman, prematurely aged by battle and worry paced back and forth.  
  
"And where is he then?" the older woman bellowed to the others in a thick accent. " I knew the bastard wouldn't show."  
  
"Be patient Ketriana. He'll be here, you know he always takes his sweet time." One of the twins, Atrus, reassured her.  
  
"We'll see. All Vegeta EVER cared about was defeating Freiza. And now that that's done why should he care what happens?"  
  
"We don't even know if Freiza really is dead yet so do calm down." The other twin, Gren, answered.  
  
Ketriana looked up, she began to feel the distinct ki signature of a Saiyan. Vegeta was watching them.  
  
"Oh, you might as well go to sleep. I'm staying up. I'll wake you if he arrives."  
  
"No you won't," muttered the teenager, Iria speaking up for the first time all night.  
  
"I will, now sleep," the woman simply replied.  
  
The others relented and one by one fell into unconsciousness. Lighting a cigarette, Ketriana walked a considerable distance away from the fire and joined the figure already waiting in the shadows. For a moment, they just stood.  
  
"So," she whispered, breaking the silence. "the prince finally decides to grace us with his presence. Tell me, how have you been?"  
  
Vegeta, not being one for pleasantries got straight to the point.  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"Don't be stupid, 'why are we here?' " she sneered exhaling smoke, "Maybe it's because ALL HELLS BROKEN LOOSE! Rumors are flying around everywhere: Freiza's dead, Freiza's not dead, Freiza's in hiding. I even heard one where Freiza's gone insane and is slaughtering all his own troops." She spoke rapidly before calming herself with a long hit. "All I know for sure is that Freiza and the Ginyu Force are no where to be found, all the main bases are destroyed, and YOU my friend, seem to be the center of all the controversy."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"I mean that everyone seems to think YOU are responsible for the disappearances of Freiza and the Ginyu Force. I was hoping you could shine some light on the subject. So just tell me yes or no: Is Freiza dead? Do you even know?"  
  
"Freiza is dead"  
  
Ketriana couldn't help fighting a smile.  
  
"Was it you then? You were always bragging that it would be you and now you've actually done it. I must say Vegeta, I never thought you'd actually have the guts to go through with it. You know.."  
  
"It wasn't' me!" he snapped, cutting her off. He turned from her and crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
"Then who?"  
  
"Nobody important" he responded after a pause.  
  
"Oh well, it doesn't matter." She said softly, stubbing out her cigarette and lighting another. Ketriana sat down on a rock and they stayed that way, not talking, for a while.  
  
"I guess the real question is where do we go from here? What now? It's not as if we all have homes we can return to. Freiza made damn sure of that. With him dead I would have thought you'd have tried to take over by now? That was always your plan." She said finally.  
  
"Things change"  
  
"Yes, I suppose they do."  
  
Again they sat in silence.  
  
"I envy them" Ketriana whispered over the sleeping forms of her comrades.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because, it's not too late for them, they can be spared. Not us, my friend, we are too far-gone. We have already traveled through that tunnel and come out the other side. They however," she gestured towards the fire, "can still turn around, still find some semblance of. normalcy. They have regrets, they. feel." She paused, "I have not regrets, I don't feel bad for one single murder, one single species I wiped out and neither do you admit it,"  
  
"No" he whispered.  
  
She laughed to herself.  
  
"And you. you have nothing to say, nothing to add, no opinions on the matter?"  
  
"You talk too much."  
  
"Yes well it's good to see nothing has changed. I'm going to sleep. I highly suggest you come back tomorrow morning. There are more pressing issues at hand than whether or not Freiza is dead."  
  
"Stop stalling and just tell me now."  
  
"If I tell you now you might never come back." She replied with a grin before walking back the fire.  
  
"Hump!" Vegeta scoffed before taking off into the night sky. 


	3. Explanations

Hey, thanks for the reviews! This ones a little short, sorry!  
  
I do now own DBZ, blah blah blah  
  
Chapter 3: Explanations  
  
Once again the Saiyan attempted to convince himself not to go, to simply leave them to there own problems. What did he own them? His inner monologues, however, were to no avail. As the sun began to crest the horizon, Vegeta found himself hovering above the campsite of the four people he had been trying to avoid. Again, Piccolo spoke up from behind.  
"What happened last night?" he demanded  
  
"None of your business Namek," Vegeta answered turning around, "don't you have anything better to do?"  
  
"Shouldn't you be training?"  
  
"Why? To save this god forsaken rock! I would like to know why everyone in the universe seems to think that I own them some great debt! I owe you NOTHING!"  
  
"Then why are you still here."  
  
Vegeta became silent; he was still trying to find an answer for that one himself. Nevertheless he decided the conversation needed to end and slowly descended to the ground where someone else was waiting for him.  
  
"Who was that? One of your little friends?" Ketriana crooned. She was the only one awake yet.  
  
"Shut up and tell me once and for all: why you are here?"  
  
"All in good time, my friend, so do try and relax. You always were too uptight. Besides, we can't start until the others wake up," she said  
  
"That is easily remedied. GET UP!" Vegeta yelled in a voice that was not to be questioned. The other three woke with a start and began to stretch and yawn before recognizing the figure before them.  
  
"Vegeta?" the twins stammered in unison.  
  
"GETA!!" Iria sprung from her mat and threw her arms around the Saiyan's neck. Vegeta winced, but gave her a moment's amnesty before detangling himself. Gren and Atrus stood and smiled.  
  
"We knew you'd show up," one of them said, no one ever could tell them apart.  
  
"Happy now?" Vegeta smirked.  
  
"Oh Geta, that was just.so. you." Ketriana sighed, "All right everyone sit down and I'll explain our problem." She took a moment to gather her thoughts before continuing, "As we speak there are over one hundred bounty hunters speeding towards this planet."  
  
"Hunters?" Atrus questioned skeptically, "Why, whose here?"  
  
"We are you imbecile!" Vegeta snapped.  
  
"What do you mean?" Gren yelled defensively, "We're protected!"  
  
"Freiza's dead" Ketriana spoke slowly, giving it time to sink in. Everyone fell silent.  
  
"So it's true," Iria muttered to herself.  
  
"On top of that, the Ginyu Force has also been destroyed. Given this information you've probably already figured out that the treaty between the Cold Empire and the Hunters has been annulled. Kuneta, Bisaru, Renemia and several others have already been arrested. The ones who have already gone to trial have been executed."  
  
"You're joking!" Atrus laughed nervously, "Most Hunters only have power levels in the four digits! What do we have to worry about?"  
  
"They don't need high ki's, the Hunters have a little thing called technology on their side. You think they haven't been waiting with baited breath for the day when they would be able to arrest all of us? Do you have any idea how many people have put bounty's on our heads? We are all worth quite a lot of money, my friends!" Ketriana screamed while shakily trying to light a cigarette. "They have a list," she explained after a quick drag, "I'm number five and Vegeta is number two, the rest of you are further down."  
  
"Number two? Whose number one?" Vegeta asked. The others only stared in disbelief.  
  
"What's wrong Geta? Jealous?" Ketriana said with a smirk. "And it's Pika by the way."  
  
"Bastard was always to out due me." Vegeta retorted.  
  
"ANYWAY, the first ones should arrive in just under five days, the rest shortly after. We have no idea what kind of weaponry they're wielding or any of their techniques but they must be good or they wouldn't have caught so many people already. Our only advantage is that they're all going to be fighting each other over us; only one team can bring us in. Perhaps we can that against the Hunters."  
  
"Humph! That won't work and you know it. Hrm. technology? Well it just so happens I've made a few connections on this dust ball of a planet they may actually do us some good." Vegeta stood, shaking his head, "Once again I'm saving all your asses. Now follow me." With that they all shot into the sky and headed towards Capsule Corp. 


	4. Help?

Disclamer: I do not own dbz  
  
Chapter 4 : Help?  
  
Bulma Briefs sat in a lawn chair with a sleeping Trunks in her arms. She knew that any attempt to put the child down would wake him so instead she sat, thankful for a moment of peace but still bored as hell. That is until five aliens landed on her front yard, one of which, was the father of her child.  
  
"Well!" She said softly as not to wake the baby, "Look who's decided to show up! Here..." She quickly rose from her seat and thrust Trunks into Vegeta's arms before he could protest. "You can hold your son for five minutes while I get a drink. And who the hell are they?" She said as she stretched and pointed to his now wide-eyed companions.  
  
"That's YOUR son Vegeta?" Iria asked in disbelief.  
  
"You have GOT to be kidding!" Atrus smirked.  
  
"YOU'RE a FATHER!" Gren added. The three of them broke out in hysterics. Even Ketriana let out muffled laugh before composing herself. Vegeta's ever present scowl deepened as Trunks awoke and proceeded to scream.  
  
"Oh, " Gren said after catching his breath, "sorry man, I just never imagined you as a parent. I mean you had such a great father figure." He let out another laugh, which resulted in an elbow jab from Ketriana.  
  
Within an hour the situation had been explained and the six of them sat around the kitchen table discussing possible courses of action.  
  
"What I don't understand is how they're tracking you." Bulma asked blowing over her coffee.  
  
"We've all got micro chips implanted at the base of our necks. Freiza used them to track all his soldiers. Luckily they aren't very accurate but they can at least track what planet your on. We figure they're using one of Freiza's own computers salvaged from a base Vegeta missed." Ketriana explained.  
  
"So why don't you just have them removed?"  
  
"Impossible," Atrus clarified, "I thought of that already. They're affixed to bone so unfortunately extraction would cause paralysis."  
  
"Well I'm sorry to say it guys but I'm stumped!" Bulma relented.  
  
"Don't worry, help is on the way. I have connections!" Gren grinned.  
  
"You DON'T mean..." Iria shouted rising from her chair.  
  
"That's right! Ryoko should be landing any minute now." He said extremely pleased with himself.  
  
"Why the hell did you get that lunatic involved!" Vegeta could feel the anger rising.  
  
"What? She used to BE a hunter Vegeta. She should know how to get us out of this."  
  
"Dammit Gren, do you ever think things through! She too unpredictable, once Ryoko's here who knows what she'll do!" Ketriana chastised.  
  
Vegeta moaned and rubbed his forehead. "You have no idea what you've just gotten us into. Ryoko's ALWAYS more trouble than help."  
  
All of a sudden the all to familiar sound of a cargo ship igniting break thrusters could be heard in the distance. Vegeta knew he should have stayed in bed. 


End file.
